Wrong gas in AC unit led to 2022 INS Ranvir fire: Police

Police in Colaba have registered a case against officials of Ajay Air Products, a gas supplier, for allegedly supplying a wrong refrigerant to the Indian Navy that resulted in a blast on board INS Ranvir in January 2022 at the Naval Dockyard in Mumbai, officials aware of the matter said on Wednesday.

- Vinay Dalvi

Three sailors were killed and another 11 injured in the blast that took place in the destroyer's air conditioning compartment.

The officials of Ajay Air Products have been booked for supplying the flammable refrigerant R152 instead of a common refrigerant R22, HT has learnt. The case was registered on March 4 under sections 304A (causing death by negligence) and 437 (mischief with the intent to destroy or make unsafe a vessel) of the Indian Penal Code.

The incident took place on January 18, 2022, when the warship docked at the Naval Dockyard in Colabayard in Colaba. Police said the case was registered based on a report by the Board of Inquiry appointed by the navy to investigate the incident. It said the company was asked to supply refrigerant freon Hydrochlorofluorocarbon-22 (R-22, which is a non-combustible) gas. However, freon Hydrofluorocarbon152 R152, a flammable, technically incompatible gas that releases toxic fumes upon combustion, was found in the air-conditioner of the warship.